The last week has been something of a blessing to GTA fans, with pre-orders going up for the most anticipated entertainment product in history. And it’s left a bitter taste in my mouth.
We all knew that GTA VI would likely have a standard and advanced edition, like most games do these days. I was a little fearful about the more expensive edition, and that it would offer a few days of “early access” to the game, a recent practice I’m a little at odds with.
If only. What we got is far more insidious. So let’s explore this topic at greater length together, shall we?
Additional content in an ideal world
It’s always cost a lot of money to develop games, and adding content to a game your players already bought was a costly business. So the DLC was born, and it made sense. Developers still have staff to pay, costs to cover, and so charging a reasonable amount for DLC makes perfect sense.
This evolved into different editions for games, offering bonus cosmetics and collector’s items as a reward. Naturally, it went too far, and some games tried to block access to certain content on lower editions. These games were not well received.
A sort of unspoken rule emerged, where you could offer all the cosmetics you want as a bonus, but keep it to cosmetics. When gameplay elements get locked behind a paywall, people get upset.
The main issue comes in that the original justification for DLC was that you needed to pay your costs as you developed further content. Launching day-one DLC meant that the content had already been developed; the developer just decided to lock it to a more expensive version, so the justification doesn’t apply.
People boycotted the games that tried to pull this, and for a while, it went okay. Then GTA VI came along.
The painful betrayal
I never, even for a second, thought Rockstar would ever do something quite like this. There have always been higher-tier editions, and they’ve always included sets of truly optional extra items – and actual, tangible, physical assets.
The GTA IV special edition came in a lockable metal safety deposit box, for crying out loud. And you even got a Rockstar duffel bag.
So, what can we expect from GTA VI, the biggest game ever? Surely, some really cool collectibles, maybe a t-shirt and a cap. Nah. What about content that’s already been developed, but is now packaged only as part of the ultimate edition?
Cosmetics are fine to include in special editions. Elements of gameplay are not.
There’s a full heist and a side activity collecting classic car parts that are exclusive to the Ultimate Edition. And that’s probably the most disappointing thing I’ve seen in many years.
Rockstar has gone over to the dark side.
No physical edition (unless you count a piece of paper in an empty game cartridge as an actual physical edition), no collectibles, not even a game map. Just a pile of digital assets and literal gameplay.
And you know what? I’m still getting it, because it’s probably worth that. Not because of the stupid extras, but because that’s the full game. It’s not a case of here’s your game, and here’s your optional extras. It’s a case of here’s part of your game, please pay $20 to unlock the rest.
So, as the title states, GTA VI is not an $80 game; it’s a $100 game where you can opt to pay less for an incomplete version.
Why it feels like betrayal
So, why would I complain, and then spend $100 on a game that enforces such a toxic sales tactic?
One reason and one reason only: it’s GTA VI. Rockstar is probably one of the only developers on earth that can do stuff like this and get away with it. As a Lord of the Rings fan, I still haven’t played Shadow of War with all that early controversy on the pay-to-win boxes in a singleplayer game, but I can’t not play a GTA game, right? I mean, I haven’t missed a single one since the first.
And that’s why this feels like betrayal.
But beyond the ill-thought-out pricing strategy, there’s something deeper here. I can’t help but feel that GTA VI is about to change the face of the gaming industry forever, and we might not like what we find on the other side. But that’s a conversation for another time. Stay tuned.
If you’d like to keep up with all things Grand Theft Auto VI, consider checking out our partnered GTA 6 Wiki, GTA 6 Bible, which includes heaps of information.
